Theme Tuesdays: Buick Grand Nationals (and Regal T Types)

If you’re wondering why a Buick Grand National Theme Tuesday has taken so long, it’s because even a devout non purist like myself questions whether or not they should be left stock.

In general modified GNs are pretty rare and modified GNXs are down right scares so a few clones and the odd Regal T Type may have worked their way into this post as well.

Owning one of these cars is probably forever out of my reach but I started to consider what organs I could sell while putting this post together.

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Start things off with a GNX and a GN from last years Street Classic’s season opener

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These things are most likely forever unattainable for me but I sure love looking at em
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Found this in a thread of ‘First cars’ this is quite the first car!
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Wonder if this car is still lurking around Ontario?
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Thrusts are always a dependable choice on G bodies
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If the rear end on this came down a bit and the white letters were front and rear it would be perfect, still it is on its way there
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Actually the car above isn’t all that far away from this which is from the one in Fast 4 (one of the best parts of that movie)
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Not sure why but I saw quite a few really interesting wheels thrown under these, like Giovannas
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If memory serves the intention was never to run this car on wires, but if you ever wondered what one would look like on wires here you go
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Now this is interesting, Hamann MM2s on something that isn’t a BMW, or even European for that matter

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These are Fiske wheels I believe, and they look quite right under this car
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This car is one of many that came from turbobuick.com
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Picked this up on Stance | Works, not sure much has happened with the build thread since this shot but it looks pretty good here
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Kind of wild to see these cars repainted, this color works surprisingly well though
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Classic streetable drag style
The owner calls this is 7 second drag sled...
The owner calls this is 7 second drag sled…
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…and this is ten second street slug
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Kenny Dutt Weiler twin turbo GN. Done the 1/8th in 4.5 seconds and makes 1431hp with 29lbs of boost. The owner at the time of this photo seems to have inherited it too, lucky guy
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Gene Fleury’s 7.38 second car, which is still sporting the V6
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This car however kicked the V6 and is running a Chevy Big Block with two turbos
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switching to the more Pro Touring side of things this one is a Speedtech car
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275 up front and 295s rear, 9 and 9.5 wheels. Lots of rubber.
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This GNX and the one below are perfect palette swaps of each other
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This car is a GNS performance car modelled under the original GNX X-Ray which has an interesting story all its own you can read here (basically it’s as close to a GNX as you can have without owning a GNX)
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Not just a pretty face this car gets put through its paces

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Classics look like they were built for these cars

 

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Obviously this post isn’t complete without Chris Chow’s famous dyno screamer

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This post has made me acutely aware of the fact that a G body Theme Tuesday is missing. I’ve added it to the list!

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2 COMMENTS

  1. That vid is a classic, I’ve probably watched it a dozen times randomly over the years. Nice post. There’s still a huge aftermarket for these cars, and a bunch of specialized tuners for this engine.

  2. cars that are 100% stock rarely are cool in my book. GN’s are though, and some nice wheels really set them off. Nice post.

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